by REERA YOO
A 26-year-old teacher from the Republic of Ireland was turned down from a teaching position in South Korea due to the “alcoholism nature” of her countrymen.
Katie Mulrennan, from County Kerry, had applied for a a teaching job in Seoul after seeing an advertisement on Craigslist in September. She wrote to the recruitment agency about her qualifications, stating that she had been teaching English for over three years in Barcelona, Oxford, Abu Dhabi and South Korea.
However, instead of an offer, the agency sent a rejection email that read: “I am sorry to inform you that my client does not hire Irish people due to the alcoholism nature of your kind.”
The teacher said she was stunned and couldn’t believe the terse message was real at first.
“Usually when you apply for a job and they don’t want you, they don’t send a reply,” Mulrennan told BBC. “Or they tell you they would prefer someone from North America, because some schools prefer the accent. But this reply was a first.”
Once the shock subsided, Mulrennan reported the incident to Craigslist and replied to the agency with a polite email. She has since found a new job in Seoul and said that she now finds humor in the situation.
“I was annoyed about it. But I can also see it was a little bit hilarious as well,” she said. “I still love the country and being in Seoul.”
Discriminatory hiring practices have been an ongoing issue for South Korea for many years. Earlier this week, Korea Nazarene University was criticized for its discriminatory requirement for English teacher applicants in its hiring ad, which read: “Drinking, smoking and homosexuality are not allowed.”
